Rohingya Refugees to Bangladesh: Historical Exclusions and Contemporary Marginalization

Topic: 

Rohingya, refugee, Arakan, Myanmar, Bangladesh

Description: 

"Rohingya refugees from the Arakan state of Myanmar found their ways a number of times to Bangladesh to escape state-sponsored persecution. While there is no dearth of studies on refugees, Ro- hingya has so far received very little research attention. This article tries to understand the dynamics and severity of reported humil- iation by the government on the Rohingya population, and how are they marginalized in their destination points. A qualitatively and quantitatively designed questionnaire was used to interview 134 refugees from two existing camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses reinforce that the level of abuse and persecution perpetrated upon them surpass all human rights standards. This was confirmed by both the in-depth and the case studies. These people were forced out by state-sponsored perse- cution and again they are forced to be repatriated due to the fact that Bangladesh cannot afford to welcome them back. It is difficult for anyone who has never been forcibly displaced to imagine what it is like to be a refugee. — Kofi Annan Contemporary global concerns essentially revolve around the dynam- ics of environment, climate change, health, war, and widespread poverty. However, Myanmar tends to remain a peripheral entity from the centralities of the current global discourse. Arakani minorities in Myanmar struggle to obtain exorcism from persecutions perpetrated on them by the tyrannical government. The world conscience sends an impression that they are blind to the call for democracy of the mass population. No loud protests are heard from the authoritative nations against the captive democracy in Myanmar. Historically, freedom has remained a myth for the Myanmarese1 in general and the minorities in particular. Arakan is the district that has been the witness to the endured persecutions on its inhabitants of varied range. The argument employed here is whether this population from Arakan should be considered “refugees” or “stateless.” Determinations as to who qualifies as a refugee are subjective because political and economic boundaries have become blurred, although the human rights groups and political activists tend to expand the definition to entail those fleeing catastrophes emerging in the natural landscapes in current times—climate change, for instance. Refugees, by definition, are those fleeing from war, conflict, persecution, or a fear of persecution (Abrar, 1999; Aman-ud-dollah, 1999; Barsky, 2000; Robinson & Segrott, 2002) that act in the decision to escape (Middleton, 2005, p. 2; Smith, 1991). Refugee flows, asylum-seekers, internal displaces, and development-induced displacees have increased exponentially in volume and have gained political significance since the end of the Cold War (Castles, 2003). Generally, there are two major patterns of refugee—first, the vast majority of refugees are hosted by neighboring countries with over 80% remaining within their region of origin due to the gravitation law effect; second, the number of urban refugees continues to grow. While I agree with this statement, I defer widely at the same time because refugee flows by and large are directed to the nearest countries with weaker borders that share identical culture and religion. Therefore, Rohingyas headed in huge number to Bangladesh, rather than to India (Figure 1). While the number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) has fallen—the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) responsibility was estimated at 25.1 million—available information suggests that a total of 67 million people had been forcibly displaced at the end of 2007, including 16 million refugees, of whom 11.4 million fall under UNHCR’s mandate and some 4.6 million Palestinian refugees under the responsibility of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The number of IDPs is estimated at 51 million worldwide; some 26 million were displaced as a result of armed conflict and another 25 million were displaced by natural disasters. In addition, while often not considered as being displaced per se, it is estimated that there exists some 12 million stateless people worldwide (UNHCR, 2008; Russell & Teitelbaum, 1992)..."

Creator/author: 

Akm Ahsan Ullaha

Source/publisher: 

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies via Routledge (London)

Date of Publication: 

2011-06-09

Date of entry: 

2021-04-27

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Countries: 

Myanmar, Bangladesh

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

285.61 KB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good